The technological progress the world is experiencing has also changed the way banking is done in Sweden today. One tough challenge for the banking industry is the moderately homogenous products and services they offer, which make banking particularly exposed and sensitive to customers and their switching behaviour. The purpose of this thesis is to investigate what the role of Facebook is in relationship marketing within banking, a case study in SEB, Sweden. The theoretical framework is focusing on three major parts for this paper. Bank marketing involves ways of marketing and segmenting a bank, furthermore relationship marketing includes theories on building long-lasting relations with customers, and finally service related technology contains technological developments and strategies of social media This thesis is done according to an explanatory technique as material has been collected by qualitative interviews and the findings have been textual data. The study has been designed into a single case study of SEB. Interviews has been conducted to understand the way a Swedish retailing bank is using social media to enhance their customer relation. It was found that SEB is seen as a personal and rather modern bank with good accessibility according to the respondents. Furthermore, customers are kept satisfied and maintained through trust, loyalty, and proactive acting. Also, the Facebook service is a good communication tool that gives fast replies and is available to use anytime. The role of Facebook within banking is multiple in association to relationship marketing. For instance, it brings along a fast communication tool and a great flexibility. SEB is rather innovative in their operation by rapidly adopting new means of technologies. The bank’s brand image as a personal and proactive bank can further be strengthened through Facebook. Additionally long term relations can be stimulated through the increased communication, collaboration, and trust that Facebook builds. SEB operates proactive relationship marketing and Facebook is one of their latest proactive approaches. What has been realised is the role of Facebook to enhance customer satisfaction and relations in the long run.

Background: For manufacturing suppliers, careful handling of business relationships with dealers is an essential function required for business success. End consumers rely on dealers for product information, advice and after sales support; all of which being factors capable of enhancing their perceived value of the product. The importance of the dealers for the end consumers implies that it is in the interest of suppliers to manage their relationship with the dealers in a satisfactory manner in order of gaining their support and commitment. In the case of suppliers in the Swedish market for outdoor power equipment, managing this relationship with servicing dealers is of great importance to their business success and viability. Successful management of such relationships requires coordination and cooperation. Thus, it is in the interest of suppliers to understand how long-term cooperation with dealers can be enhanced. Purpose: Our research focuses on identifying determinants that enhance sustainable cooperation between manufacturers and servicing dealers in the Swedish outdoor power equipment market. Method: A survey was conducted among servicing dealerships in Sweden testing eight hypotheses developed through an adaption of Morgan and Hunts’ (1994) Commitment-trust theory together with an extensive literature review. The results were ana-lysed and tested with correlation analysis. Conclusions: Trust and commitment were found to be determinants in fostering sustainable cooperation between dealers and manufacturers in the Swedish market for outdoor power equipment. Furthermore, four important antecedents for dealer commitment were identified; supplier commitment, support, termination costs and participation. Whereas, communication was found to be an important precursor for trust.

Background: The financial services industry is a highly competitive and fragmented market. Firms are realizing the need and advantage of retaining customers rather than only focusing on acquiring new customers. Managers should focus on increasing customer satisfaction and communication levels as well as providing higher service quality. They should also emphasize the importance of building better relationships with customers to create loyalty. Purpose: The purpose of this thesis is to investigate if customers of a local bank office are loyal, find the factors that create disloyalty and analyze how the bank can increase customer loyalty.  Method: To complete the purpose of this paper, the authors prepared a case study on a local Swedish bank and conducted a survey of the bank’s customers to determine levels of loyalty within the company. The authors spent four days in the bank office to have the customers fill in the survey immediately after their experience with the bank. Participants in the survey were customers who visited bank tellers, had booked meetings, or un-booked meetings. Conclusion: It was found that the bank had high levels of customer loyalty, as a majority of the customers were exclusively customers of the bank. Never the less a significant amount of customers had an additional bank(s) which shows the bank has an opportunity to strengthen their market position, but also a need to retain their customers. Customers were satisfied with the service quality provided and the relationships were satisfactory between customers and their advisers. The majority of the customers were contributing to a positive word of mouth, which is an indicator that they are loyal customers. However, the main area of improvement needed by the bank is to implement a better customer complaint management system, as many customers did not know how or where to complain. / Bakgrund: Den finansiella tjänstesektorn är en starkt konkurrensutsatt och fragmenterad marknad. Företag inser behovet och fördelen av att behålla kunder snarare än att enbart fokusera på att värva nya. Genom att fokusera på att öka kundnöjdheten för att de existerande kunderna kan de erbjuda en bättre service kvalitet. De bör också betona vikten av att bygga bättre relationer med kunder för att skapa lojalitet. Syfte: Syftet med denna uppsats är att undersöka om en lokal banks kunder är lojala, hitta de faktorer som skapar illojalitet och analysera hur banken kan öka kundlojaliteten. Metod: För att uppnå syftet med vår uppsats utarbetade författarna en fallstudie den lokala banken. Författarna genomförde en undersökning av bankens kunder för att analysera dess lojalitet till företaget. Författarna tillbringade en vecka i banken för att utvärdera kundens erfarenhet i relation till dess besök. Deltagarna i undersökningen var kunder som besökte banken i ärenden inom kassa, bokat möten, eller obokat möte. Slutsats: Det konstaterades att banken hade hög kundlojalitet, då en majoritet av kunderna var endast kunder i banken. Icke desto mindre, en stor mängd kunder hade ytterligare bank(er) vilket visar att banken har en möjlighet att stärka sin ställning på i den lokala marknaden, men också att stärka sin ställning i den existerande kundkretsen. Kunderna var nöjda med den servicekvalitet som banken tillhandahåller och relationer var tillfredsställande mellan kunder och deras rådgivare. Majoriteten av kunderna bidrar med positiva rekommendationer, vilket är en indikator på att de är lojala kunder. Dock är den viktigaste biten av förbättring krävs av banken för att genomföra ett bättre system för hantering av anmälningar, eftersom många kunder inte vet hur eller var att klaga.

Den rådande trenden är att vi blir alltmer uppkopplade mot Internet och sociala medier. Vi kommunicerar med varandra snabbare och flitigare. Via sociala medier kan företag nå en allt större publik. Främjar sociala medier relationen mellan företag och kund eller gör de mer skada än nytta? / A current trend is that the use of Internet and social media is increasing. We communicate faster and more diligent through social media. Therefore companies can reach a bigger audience. Do social media promote relationships between companies and customers or does it make more harm than good?

Network communication technology has developed for decades. As a result, nowadays, marketers can communicate clients more effectively through the use of social network media to develop a powerful relationship marketing strategy. This dissertation compares relationship marketing strategy with existing marketing theories. Based on the comparison, the dissertation uses qualitative approaches to analyze the cooperation between Newman Co. (It is a social media service firm that helps companies with relationship marketing strategy.) and PetroChina, so as to propose a successful way to integrate the social network media into a relationship marketing strategy. Some materials are gathered from email interview with Mr. Zhao, the Manager of the Service Department from Newman Co. Moreover, the dissertation conducts a case study (It is based on interview with Mr. Peik Hua, the General Manager of Southwest Branch of PetroChina) about what benefit that PetroChina has got through using Newman's social media system (Remote video conferencing system). The purpose of this dissertation is, by analyzing those materials, to identify what social media can do for relationship marketing strategy, and how it works, so as to find out and highlight the benefits of social media networking. Meanwhile, this dissertation attempts to definite how SMEs form large clients relationship, such as Newman co., to approach large clients and gain their trust to incorporate social networking media into their relationship marketing strategy.

Titel: Facebook - en plattform i relationsmarknadsföring? – Hur resesamordnare använder Facebook som hjälpmedel i sin relationsmarknadsföring. Nivå: C- uppsats i Företagsekonomi Författare: Linnea Granberg, Erika Illerbrand Handledare: Per-Arne Wikström Datum: 2012 maj Syfte: Syftet med undersökningen är att kartlägga hur resesamordnare använder Facebook i sin relationsmarknadsföring. Vi vill undersöka varför företagen har valt det arbetssätt de har idag? Hur ser det ut i praktiken? Hur tror företagen att deras arbetssätt påverkar relationerna med kunderna? Anledningen till val av ämne var att Facebook är ett relativt nytt verktyg inom marknadsföringen. Vi vill undersöka hur företag i dagsläget kan använda sin Facebooksida i sin relationsmarknadsföring. Metod: Vi har använt en deduktiv metod då vi har utgått från tidigare forskning och sedan applicerat denna på empirin. De primära empiriska data som insamlades var av kvalitativ karaktär.  Resultat och slutsats: Resesamordnarna använder Facebook kundtjänst samt plattform för att föra en dialog med kunderna. Resesamordnarna lär känna sina kunder bättre genom deras arbete med Facebook. Genom den interaktion som uppstår mellan kund och företag blir kunden del i en värdeskapande process tillsammans med företaget. Om företaget bemöter offentlig negativ kritik på ett bra sätt kan negativ ryktesspridning lindras och förtroende för företaget byggas. Förslag till fortsatt forskning: En undersökning som ger inblick ur konsumentens perspektiv. Uppsatsens bidrag: Att kartlägga hur företag i dagsläget kan använda Facebook som ett verktyg i sin relationsmarknadsföring. Nyckelord: Facebook, relationsmarknadsföring, kunddialog, word- of- mouth, relation. / Title: Facebook -  a platform for relationship marketing?  - How travel coordinators use Facebook as a mean in their relationship marketing. Level: C Business Author: Linnea Granberg, Erika Illerbrand Supervisor: Per-Arne Wikström Date: 2012 May Aim: The aim of this study was to investigate how travel coordinators use Facebook as a part of their relationship marketing. We wanted to study why the companies work with Facebook the way they do? How do they work practically? How do the companies believe that their way of working with Facebook influences the relationships with the costumers? The reason behind the choice of topic was that Facebook is a relatively new tool within marketing. We wanted to investigate how companies can use their Facebook page as a part of their marketing. Method: We have used a deductive method as we have used established theories and applied them to reality. The primary empirical data that was collected was of a qualitative character. Result & Conclusions: The travel coordinators in our study use Facebook as a helpdesk and as platform for conducting dialogs with their customers. The companies gain knowledge about their customers through their way of working with Facebook. Through the integration between company and customer, can the customer become a part of a value adding process. If the company deals with public criticism in a respectable manner, can negative gossip about the company be salved and faith be build.  Suggestions for future research: A study where you see everything from a customer’s point of view. Contribution of the thesis: We hope that this study can contribute to an overview of how companies use Facebook as an aim in their relationship marketing today. Key words: Facebook. Relationship marketing. Customer dialog. Word – of- mouth. Relationship.

Title: The Battle of the Customers – Does loyalty exist within the FMCG market? Authors: Emmie Thurn 880909, David Gustafsson 870926  Purpose: The purpose with this study is to examine how relationship marketing strategies can enhance companies’ effectiveness, within the FMCG market, in the sense of more satisfied and loyal customers. The 5Qs model will be applied in order to see if there are any critical quality factors that encourage long-term relationship. Methodology: This quantitative study was based upon positivistic assumptions and carried out by a deductive research approach. The data was collected through two questionnaires, which included 200 customers and 15 representatives from three various FMCG stores. Conclusion: In this study the authors have found that RM, as the current theory present it, does not provide any effective strategies to create customer satisfaction and loyalty within the FMCG market. Therefore, the authors raise the question if price is the new customer loyalty program within the FMCG market? Ten quality factors are identified as critical when generating a long-term relationship between FMCG stores and customers.  To create a successful long-term relationship can these quality factors be combined into a PRODSERV offer. Keywords: Relationship marketing, quality, customer satisfaction, customer loyalty, 5Qs model, the FMCG market.

Syfte:            Syftet med denna kandidatuppsats är att undersöka hur Collegium Restaurang & Konferens kan differentiera sin kylda färdigmat med fokus på kundens matval till kvällen, samt beskriva vilka möjligheter Collegium har att använda sig av relationsmarknadsföring. Metod:         Primärdata insamlades genom semi-strukturerade intervjuer med anställda och ägare på Collegium samt genom en enkät till nuvarande och potentiella kunder. Den insamlade informationen analyserades därefter till viss del kvantitativt (enkätsvar) och till viss del kvalitativt (intervjuer och de enkätsvaren med möjlighet till fria svar) med koppling till relevanta vetenskapliga teorier. Analysarbetet har dock till största delen genomförts kvalitativt genom användningen av the constant comparative method. Slutsats:       Studien som genomförts visar att kunderna inte äter färdigmat till kvällsmat särskilt ofta vilket innebär att det finns en marknadspotential. För att Collegium Restaurang & Konferens skall få kunderna intresserade av att köpa deras kylda färdigmat till kvällsmat, gärna oftare än de äter färdigmat idag, bör produkten vara lättillgänglig, resultera i en tidsbesparing men även vara ett socialt accepterat matval. Färdigmaten skall vara smakrik, ha tilltalande utseende, upplevas som nyttig och nylagad. Undvika tillsatser är också viktig differentiering. Företaget använder något som de kallar ”surdegsströssel”, vilket kan skickas med färdigmaten och som kommer resultera i att kunden upplever maten som krispig och nylagad. Företaget har flera möjligheter till relationsmarknadsföring där studien visat att en mobil app kan vara ett alternativ som passar många kunder. I denna app skulle företaget kunna ge kunderna tillgång till olika erbjudanden, menyer och recept, vilket kan hjälpa kunden med dennes måltidsplanering. / Purpose:      The purpose of this study is to investigate and analyze how Collegium Restaurang & Konferens can differentiate their HMR for the evening meal and describe the possibilities for Collegium to use relationship marketing. Method:       Primary data was gathered through semi-structured interviews with the personnel and owners at Collegium Restaurang & Konferens and a survey to current and potential customers. The information was partly analyzed quantitative (survey data) but also qualitative (interviews and the survey responses that was text answers) by referring to the scientific theories. However, the primary method for analyzing all data was the constant comparative method. Conclusion:  This study shows that the customers do not eat HMR for supper particularly often, which results in that market potential exists. To get the customers more interested in buying Collegium Restaurang & Konferens’ HMR for supper, than they buy HMR today, the product needs to be easy to buy, result in a time-reduction but also be a socially acceptable choice of food. The HMR needs to be appetizing, have an appealing look, being viewed as healthy and newly cooked. Avoidance of for example chemical flavourings is also an important differentiator. The company use something they call “leaven-sprinkles”, which could be a complementary product to their HMR. This will result in that the food is viewed as crispier and thus fresher. The company has several opportunities for relationship marketing, and our study showed that a mobile application can be an alternative that suits many customers. Through this application the company could give the customers access to different offers, menus and recipes. While the customers often lack pre-planning of their meals, the company could offer a service with for example weekly menus to assist the customer with the planning.

The development of virtual sponsored communities has created great possibilities for people and companies to interact on shared platforms. To create interaction in the community, it is essential to create the perception of trustworthiness of the community. The purpose of this study is to examine which concepts of trust-building constitute the perception of trustworthiness of virtual sponsored communities. A theoretical framework based on previous studies on trust-building in virtual communities is used to provide the basis for our empirical studies. The paper examines the virtual sponsored community of an online video game, World of Warcraft, with both quantitative surveys and qualitative netnographical observations to determine the important concepts which affect the perception of trustworthiness of the community from the perspectives of the sponsor and the gamers. Our findings show that the concepts of quality content, privacy policy, interaction, knowledge growth, satisfaction, embeddedness, shared value and perceived responsiveness constitute the perception of trustworthiness of the virtual sponsored community. The findings also show implications for causal relationships between the concepts affecting the perception of trustworthiness for future studies.

Executive summary Purpose: Current research [1] compared the differences in terms of perception of trustworthiness and emotional appeal of traditional and consumer generated marketing media and [2] evaluated the correlation between factors of the recently developed relationship communication framework (Finne & Grönroos, 2009) with the perception of a marketing action by actual customers of a firm, to see whether these factors should be considered in firm’s marketing communication strategy. Additionally, the researchers compared the correlations between traditional and consumer generated media types to the relationship communication factors, effectively combining the two researched subjects.        Design and execution: The research utilized quantitative research approach relying on simple random sampling technique within fitness and recreational settings.   Findings/Implications: Data analysis confirmed that there is a consistent difference between traditional and consumer generated media in terms of perception of trustworthiness and partial and not consistent difference in terms of emotional appeal. Mild correlation between consumer unique factors of relationship communication framework (Finne & Grönroos, 2009) and perception of the marketing action have been confirmed, with these correlations remaining consistent between traditional and consumer generated media. The findings suggest that traditional and consumer generated media have varying impacts on consumer’s perception of marketing action and that incorporating consumer unique factors of relationship communication framework (Finne & Grönroos, 2009) in marketing communication strategy may benefit the firm in relationship building and integrated marketing communication.